It sounds strange to say it, but for 25 minutes of basketball, the Clippers defended the much-discussed Phoenix S/R fairly well. They threw a variety of looks at Phoenix off their high screen. The Clips frequently chose to trap Nash while rotating a baseline defender onto the screener, and they switched effectively - particularly while Livingston was in the game.

The defensive problems were second-generational - it wasn't like Diaw got many easy lanes to the basket off the screen or that Marion was able to drive baseline at will. The Clippers lost the game in the rotations off these sets - and the way you know is the balanced Phoenix scoring attack. Phoenix didn't exploit a particular matchup so much as they were able to anticipate soft spots in the Clipper rotation. When there's open space on the arc, it really doesn't matter who's there for Phoenix because they can all hit.

The Suns shot 12-27 from the arc; the Clippers finished 4-12, two of which were in the waning moments of the game while they were on life support.

Let's break down the possessions that yielded Phoenix's twelve 3-pointers:

(1st, 6:30) Like most of Phoenix's long-range shots, the Suns first three-pointer of the night is initiated in transition - off a missed Cassell fadeaway. Marion collects the rebounds, dishes it off to Nash who pulls up with :21 on the shot clock and hits an uncontested three-pointer.

For the record, the Clippers are back - just not set. Exactly three seconds has expired on the shot clock.

(1st, 3:47) Off a successful Brand FT, Barbosa brings the ball up, guarded by Mobley, with Nash on the wing. Thomas sets a high screen for Barbosa. Barbosa uses his quickness to elude the Kaman/Mobley trap/double-team. As Barbosa enters the paint he has (1) Kaman backpedaling, (2) Mobley trying to catch up to the play from behind, and (3) Q leaving Nash wide open on the perimeter to help on Barbosa. Seeing the triple-team, Barbosa passes it back out to Nash on the perimeter and, to their credit, both Cassell and Ross do a nice job rotating here -- Cassell up from the corner and Ross onto Diaw - whom Sam just left.

But all it takes is one loose screw and the entire wheel comes apart - and Nash finds a wide, wide...and I mean wide open Tim Thomas on the garden spot. He hasn't missed in two weeks and he doesn't now. What happened?

After the Barbosa penetration, Kaman never recovered and just blew the assignment.

(2nd, 11:23) Quickly into their set, Thomas launches up a three and misses, but the long rebound comes out to Raja Bell. Before the Clippers - four of whom are below the foul line -- can reset their defense, the Suns have assumed their spots on the perimeter, including Boris Diaw. Bell kicks it out to Diaw immediately and with :22 left on the new shot clock, he hits it.

(2nd, 10:18) Classic Phoenix set, even without Nash on the floor. Barbosa starts with the ball, with House on the wing, Bell in the left corner and Diaw in the right corner. Thomas sets a high screen for Barbosa and, again, both Mobley and Kaman end up chasing Barbosa into the lane. If Kevin Pelton were documenting this, he'd have to classify this tactically as a "trap," but trap implies that there's some measure of captivity...and that's not the case here.

Even though Dunleavy has chosen to throw two bodies on Barbosa in the paint, now Vlad leaves Bell in the corner to help on Barbosa - only this time the Phoenix spacing is far too good for any weak side rotation. Maggette would need to hail a cab to get from the right corner to Bell. The mistake was Vlad in leaving Bell in the first place. There was no help he could provide on the play that a weak side defender couldn't.

Wanna know the sick part? Had it not been Bell, it would've been Thomas, who was wide open at his garden spot.

If the Clips are doubling the ball off the screen, what's the sense of having a third defender collapse on him as well? If it's Andre Miller penetrating and Greg Buckner is your biggest perimeter threat, that's one thing. But Dunleavy realizes that if there's a guy in a gorilla suit running around the arena, then he's playing Phoenix, right?

(2nd, 4:09) This is just bad luck and there's nothing you can do about it. Nash pushes it up. He wants Marion for the alleyoop, but misses. Marion is barely able to save the ball in bounds and it's tipped out to Thomas on the arc.

Look what I found.

(3rd, 10:53) All it takes is one second of bad individual defense and the whole defensive set is shot to hell. It's a high Nash-Diaw S/R that Brand and Ross defend perfectly. Nash can't get Diaw the ball and Ross isn't providing Nash any room either to penetrate or step back and shoot. With nowhere to go, Nash swings it over to Marion on the perimeter, who is covered by Kaman. Diaw makes a strong cut to the basket, but Brand is with him every step of the way.
But Diaw doesn't have to break free of Brand to be effective and here's why:

When Diaw makes his move, Mobley momentarily shifts his balance away from his man, Bell, in the corner and toward the cutting Diaw. The instant Marion picks up on this, he swings the ball over the now-open Bell in the right corner.

Three points.

An awful decision by Mobley on one of his worst games of the year. What kills here is that you've got four guys out there playing smashmouth defense - particularly Ross and Brand. But the slightest shift of your weight can cost your team three points against Phoenix - and that's what happened with Mobley here.

(3rd, 9:14) Off a long Cassell miss, Nash pushes it up and - quite appropriately - hits the PUJIT while Sam is still on his heels at :21.

The PUJITer becomes the PUJITee.

(3rd, 1:23) Nash brings it up left side covered by Livingston with Barbosa on the left wing being guarded by Maggette. Barbosa goes to meet Nash at the arc. When Nash leaves Barbosa with the ball, it's simply a matter of Clipper miscommunication - Maggette thinks there's a switch, so he picks up Nash...but Livingston remains on Nash as well. By the time Livingston figures out that he's sitting in the wrong seat, Barbosa has heaved up his open 25-footer.

(3rd, 0:02) This is a possession that never should've exited if not for Shaun's awful entry pass into Brand that gets knocked away by Diaw with :12. And there's absolutely nothing to explain these ten seconds other than to stick an adhesive label on it marked, "Phoenix Suns Basketball":

Nash rushes the ball upcourt, weaves his way - first through Brand at about 35 feet, then through Vlad at the arc - through the entire Clippers' defense. When Shaun and Corey finally collapse on Nash in the lane, Nash - falling down -- squirts the ball out to Diaw at the foul line with :05 left in the quarter. Diaw recognizes Raja Bell doing the crossword puzzle in the left corner with no Clipper within ten feet of him.

Diaw to Bell. Three points.

Now you see how this 6'9" French center that was wasting away in obscurity in Atlanta manages routinely to rack up, like, eight assists?

(4th, 6:01) This score emanated from that Nash-Diaw screen roll drag we broke down earlier. Livingston starts on Nash, with Kaman on Diaw. Ross is monitoring Barbosa on the left wing. A pattern is starting to emerge here because the brainfart looks and smells much like two earlier sets where a Phoenix cutter attracted too much Clipper help at the expense of the Clips' perimeter coverage.

Nash keeps the ball with Diaw dragging toward the hoop and what happens here is that both Livingston and Kaman double Nash, with Ross leaving Barbosa on the wing to take Diaw.

Fine...except...who's rotating up on Barbosa?

That would be no one.

(4th, 4:16) Yep. The High S/R, this time for Marion. The hedge works nicely here as Kaman picks it up and, as Marion pulls up, Corey meets the Matrix at the spot while Kaman returns to his original man - Diaw. It's one of those sets where you're saying, "good team defense!" All good, until you realize that...

...while Corey closed on Marion, his man - Raja Bell - snuck over to the far right corner and now nobody is within ten feet of him. Hell, he isn't even on my television screen - that's how sick Phoenix's spacing is!

Marion swings a vicious cross-court pass to Barbosa on the wing who touch-passes it over to the wide open Bell.

If it wasn't breaking your heart, it'd be beautiful to watch. Suns by 12 and the writing is on the wall.

(4th, 2:56) It's pretty much over now, but this is vintage Nash, as Doug Collins points out. Nash first tries the high S/R with Marion, the Clips hedge and the Matrix doesn't get the shot he wants, so he dishes it back to Nash to reset.

The next set is the ol' Diaw S/R. Livingston starts on Nash, Vlad on Diaw. When Diaw makes that cut to the basket, Livingston covers him well, leaving Vlad on Nash. Nash toys with Vlad for a second on the arc, then quickly steps back and fires before Vlad can even put up a hand.

Dagger.

Some more general observations tomorrow. There's some good to be gleaned from Game One, but you can see how eight to ten bad split-second decisions can doom an 18-22 night from your franchise player.

That's all it takes.

Posted Wednesday, October 29 at 3:20PM

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And WHY was Shaun trying to post up Mr. MVP in the 4th? It took him almost the entire Denver series to finally post up Earl Freakin Boykins. Shouldn't it have been reversed? Livingston with the entry to Cassell? I think 2 times Cassell went baseline and drew the foul. Sam PUJIT is here for a reason, and he needs to control the ball in the fourth.

All of this is academic if the shots don't fall. Is it possible for a team to continue with this level of shooting accuracy for an entire seven game series? Does the axium "live by the three, die by the three" hold true? Should the defense be concerned about the large number of points in the paint that were scored, probably because of the fear of the long ball opening up the lanes to attack the rim?

Clips shot 60%, scored 123 points and LOST. Those aren't good signs. You mention that you are wondering if the Suns will shoot that well all series...will the Clips? It doesn't look good for us if we have a shooting contest.

In PHX's case, they live by their 3 while your team dies by their 3. BUT, it just can't last long. They started cold against the lakers and got hot. Just by law of probabilities, they're going to get cold. Granted the Clips may get cold as well, going cold from the post and from 5-10 ft is much better than going cold from 20+.

Live by the 3 die by the 3.
Long shots mean long rebounds. That usually means easy outlets and transition points for PHX.

On TNT - "If you run with PHX, your bigs are too tired late in the game." THAT was an understatement. I can't really remember even EB being effective late in the game. I can remember Kaman and V-Rad being slow to rotate and clog the lane.

Perhaps LA had too long a break, and PHX has a good roll going into the series. Like the sign said "Beat LA... Again". This must be like bad dejavu for the Suns, only now they play the A-team.

By the way - Re:Cavs vs Wash:
I hope noone takes offense, but anybody notice that Mike Brown and Eddie Jordan look like "brothas" who grew up on the opposite side of the tracks? Eddie Jordan even looks like the guy from Hustle and Flow. It seemed like the coach from the streets vs the coach who when to and IV prep school.

phoenix will have the clips as their next victims. the suns want to own 2 la scalps. the clips cannot match their style of b'ball. la is lucky to make the playoff this time . i'm afraid your luck is up.

Very insightful comments from "coach", above. Gee, Mr. D'Antoni, we'd have thought you would be working out your plan to keep hitting every 3 while stopping Elton Brand from scoring 40 points. But I suppose banking on the Clippers' "luck" running out will work out fine for you, too.

I thought the Clips played very well during much of the game. However; Phoenix had all their offensive weapons on full power. We can give up points to the other guys, but there's no way Nash should score 31. He's gonna get his assist but he can't score 31 points....no way!! Cat Mobley needs to stop disappearing on the road!! He needs to be a constant threat to score to take away some pressure off the bigs. They had a chance to win in the second half and got out-offensed. Dunleavy will make the adjustments and the Clips WILL win game 2!!!!

"A pattern is starting to emerge here because the brainfart looks and smells much like two earlier sets where a Phoenix cutter attracted too much Clipper help at the expense of the Clips' perimeter coverage."

And when the Lakers got burned by this same thing and started sticking to their men like glue, Barbosa, Diaw and Nash wore out a path to the rim. Such is the difficulty of guarding the Suns and why you couldn't pay me enough to be an NBA head coach.

*********
"What do you want to do on pick-and-rolls?" asked D'Antoni. (That's generally where all defensive strategy talks begin.)

"That's a bear right there because when Elton Brand rolls out, he's as good as anybody in the league," said Alvin Gentry, who was Brand's coach for two years in Los Angeles. "We have to stay attached to him."

"Keep in mind that they're shooting an unbelievable number of pull-ups off the break," Weber said. "Cassell will pull, [Cuttino] Mobley will pull, [Corey] Maggette will pull. Brand has even come down and jacked it. Corralling [surrounding players in transition] and getting back are key."

"They'll be harder to scheme because they're a transition team," said Iavaroni. "The Lakers set up their offense, and that allowed you to set up your defense."

The discussion continued nonstop for three hours, changing directions faster than Nash in the open floor. Gentry stressed that Brand is devastating in the post going to the middle but guardable when forced to spin to the baseline. D'Antoni wondered if they could bring their double teamer on Brand from the baseline, as they did against the Lakers. They all agreed that they should allow defensive specialist Quinton Ross to shoot from the outside but couldn't decide whether a similar strategy should be used for backup point guard Shaun Livingston. Quinter noted that when Brand is double-teamed he will look for Kaman underneath, and that Kaman can finish, unlike the purple-and-gold's Kwame Brown.
************

Just thought it was interesting, with all the talk on clipperblog regarding how to d-up the Suns.

Trying to stir things up eh? According to your blog (I hate The Raptors) You are "A Toronto Raptors season ticket holder who eats , drinks , and sleeps Raptors basketball. He is a noted basketball historian who writes to Sports Illustrated, ESPN and other sports publications. *He hates the Raptors when they play crappy ball."

So. Are you pissed at the lack luster performance of your team this year? Shouldnt you at least be proud of this cinderella story? This underdog, this fantasy coming true? This team continues to take a serious bite out of teams with budgets nearly 4 times of it's own.

Or are you just trying to stir things up here? Are you really a sports writer? Or have you been published in the "Rants & Raves" section complaining about your beloved Raptors coverage.

cuttino mobley is begining to look synonymous with the suns jim jackson last season. unless he proves me wrong tonight, the only good thing they guy is for is the occasionaly 3, usually at the middle period of the game (bridging of 2nd n 3rd) hes not good on defence and hes too old to run with the suns (as was jackson). relgate him to the bench, bring in maggette, drive the lane in conjunction with brand and kaman and weve got a win. i hate to say it but that wont work either, the suns are gunna kill the clips, *sigh* even without kt and amare, now thats insulting

Hey Clipper fans. I am a Suns fan and I thought I would just provide some insight. You don't expect the Suns to shoot this well the entire series, but it wouldn't be surprise to people here in Phoenix. The Suns averaged almost 40% from beyond the arc during the entire season. The Suns love threes and there philosophy is this. Shooting 40% from beyond the arc is just as good as shooting 60% from 2-point range (how often does that that happen?).

In the Suns' last game against Dallas, the Suns shot 16/24 from 3-point range, which is 67%. That is the equivalent of shooting 100% from 2-point range. If you are questioning my math, I will break it down. The 16 3-point makes yeild 48 points in 24 attempts. You can't get 48 points shooting 2-pointers unless you make all 24 attempts.

The only way to beat the Suns is to defend the 3-point line and pound it inside on the offensive end. They are missing both Kurt Thomas and Amare Stoudemire, the heart and soul of the Phoenix front line.

Wow Dominic what would we ever do without you? Maybe you should start a Suns blog since to date noone has cared to start one of any signficance.

As long as we are taking rediculously small sample sizes and holding them up as standard procedure, how about the time they shot 26-97 from the field including 7-23 from the arc against New Jersey and an almost defenseless Jason Kidd for an embarrassing 27% and 30% respectively? Or a pathetic 8-28 from the arc for 29% to barely eek out a win at home against the hapless Knicks? Or when they pooped out just 9-27 against the Lakers in Game 2? Hey look at that, take off 3 3's and the scores are reversed and the Clippers take down game 1, how about that? No wonder we are shaking in our boots.

Wait, you mean Amare Stoudemire is injured? Stop the presses!

Hey Dominic, where are your tickets for tonights game? You are "a Suns fan" so you are going, right?

Hey, I wasn't trying to be a jerk as you just proved you can be as much of an @ss as Lakers fan or Kobe himself. I was giving you an example, and EB is not going to go 18-22 every game, and they lose although he did; that doesn't bode well for the Clips. Cutino will be a non-factor with Bell guarding him.

There is a Suns blog, but I don't like to talk to everyone who is just going to agree. NBA.com has a link here to read your man's article on the 3's.

You picked out the very few occasions the Suns' 3 failed them. They AVERAGED (mathmatical term which means sometimes more and sometimes less, but over the course of the season, that was the number) 40% from behind the arc and if the Clippers allow them to shoot there, they WILL lose. Your Clippers were down by double-digits with less than a minute left. A three or two in garbage time doesn't make it a close game.

If the Clippers are as clueless as you are, there is no wonder they haven't been to the playoffs for 9 years. The Suns have missed the playoffs once since 1988.

Suns in 5 and Los Angeles should riot try and burn itself down again. I have my tickets to tonight's game and I will enjoy watching another L.A. team get scorched.

Calm down, you're gonna give Clipper fans a bad name, bro. While some of his stats are a small sample size (one game), he does point out the 40% 3PT% on the regular season. Bringing up examples of single games to prove him wrong paints you as a fool.

Finally, the fact is, we can't give them any open threes. I don't know how we can accoplish that, but the screen rolls are killing us.

I merely enjoy the presumptuousness it required for you to come here and assume that noone but a Suns fan knows they can shoot 3's. Your "insight" amounted to nothing.

So I'm a jerk and an "@ss" for providing reasonable counter-examples and yet you are a good man for coming here and assuming you are god's gift to Clipper followers who will swoop in from whatever adobe structure you came from to set everything straight? The Arizona sun is frying your brain kid. What is it 100 over there already?

John R, I wish that were me, then I would be a millionaire. No, you're jerk and an @ss because you came at me sideways in response to a blog where I was not trying to talk any smack. I was only trying to point out, not that the Suns CAN shoot threes, but they prefer it. Even on the fastbreak, you will notice they retreat to the three-point line, which no one has stated. I never presumed that Clippers fans or any other fans did not know this, but no one here has actually mentioned it (by the way "noone" is not a word).

Everyone was discussing how to beat the Suns and I just told you how. Only Detroit and San Antonio have done it consistently.

Todd, other than the fact you called me a moron, you are wise beyond youR years (unless you are really old). Clipper fans don't have a bad name, the Clippers do (but how can you argue against an owner trying to be profitable). I admire Clippers fans more than any other because they stick with there team despite all the losing seasons and they do it in a city where the Lakers play also. I can relate as the Arizona Cardinals play here.

That was pretty cool back there. Every team collapses once in a while, and the Suns usually do it more than the others. They score a lot, they dish a lot, but if they don't shoot well then nothing works.

I'm a huge Suns fan and Steve Nash is totally amazing, but I love the Clips too, albeit a rung lower. They have as much of a chance as the Suns in winning this series, maybe even more considering they have Brand and Kaman working inside.

The Suns have Nash; without him they'd be gone. But Marion is... missing somehow. I'll see the scoreboard on Game 3 and hope he comes back, otherwise the Clips have this all but wrapped up.

I've nothing but respect for everyone in the world of basketball, save Kobe Bryant when he goes off with a bang on that mouth of his. The Clips deserve this after being dissed by the Lakers for, like, forever. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up in the Finals this year.

I have to agree with MUSkip...Anschultz Entertainment Group will pretty much go to any length to make sure they hold up their end of the bargain for Kansas City, and I see that coming in the form of some really sweet deal to move to KC.

04/12/08 02:11:24

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